The Arab American News
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Detroit Jewish Federation: Celebrating racism and making money at it
On Thursday, August 21, 2008, one of the country's wealthiest communities will celebrate the Nakba ? the violent ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestine in 1948 ? in a poor neighborhood in Detroit. And if all goes well, a large group of folks, representing metro Detroit's large Black and Arab communities and other Palestinian...How Victor spent his summer vacation
Victor MacDiarmid, a University of Toronto student from Kingston, Ontario, spent the first part of his summer vacation working with the International Solidarity Movement, a non-violent Palestinian organization resisting Israeli occupation. That was before the Israelis expelled him. As a witness to the happenings, he...U.S. convicts bin Laden’s driver at Guantanamo
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba � A military court on Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of supporting terrorism but acquitted him on the more serious charge of conspiring with al Qaeda in the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two. On Thursday, he was sentenced to five and a half years. He is eligible for...U.S. Army hopes to keep native Arabic speakers
Washington � The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the U.S. military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks. Only one other job in the Army, Special Forces, rates such a super-sized retention bonus. Now,...Obama’s Muslim advisor steps down
Washington � This week, Mazen Asbahi, volunteer Muslim-outreach coordinator to the Obama campaign, tendered his resignation. The Chicago-based attorney stepped down amidst personal attacks. "I am stepping down from the volunteer role I recently agreed to take on with the Obama campaign as Arab American and Muslim American outreach...Marketing Obama to evangelicals
OAKLAND (IPS) � For the past three decades, the religious right has dominated the religio-political dialogue in the United States. The right's growth, and its agenda � which revolved around so-called traditional family values issues including, but not limited to, opposition to abortion and to full equality for gays and lesbians...Hizbullah influence likely to hold
BEIRUT � Lebanon's politicians squabbled this week over whether or not to enshrine Hizbullah's resistance to Israel in a ministerial statement to be adopted by the fledgling national unity government. But with the balance of power in favor of the Shi'a movement laid bare since the May strife, analysts said there was little doubt the...Egypt sentences opposition activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Washington � Leading pro-democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was on Saturday sentenced in absentia by an Egyptian court to two years in prison on charges of "tarnishing Egypt's reputation." The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) condemns what has been an extended campaign to silence and demonize Ibrahim for exercising his...Medical care contingent on spying
Israel's secret police are pressuring Palestinians in Gaza to spy on their community in exchange for urgent medical treatment, according to a report released this week by an Israeli human rights organization. Physicians for Human Rights says the Shin Bet began interrogating Palestinian patients seeking permission to travel from...New operation gets surprise support
BAQUBA (IPS) � A massive military operation in Diyala province has underscored the military and political gains by the Sahwa militia, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's earlier attempts to thwart them. Maliki has now apparently come around to involving the Sahwa rather than opposing them. The Sahwa are the "Awakening Forces"...Film captures essence of Lebanese spirit
As a fourth-generation New Yorker with no connection to the Middle East, Deborah Harse didn't know a whole lot about Lebanon. But she did know that it was a beautiful place, and when she saw a listing on the Web site www.marathonguide.com for the Beirut Marathon, the dedicated runner knew she wanted to go there and compete. Then,...
Police Chief Michael Celeski dies suddenly
August 1st, 20080 DEARBORN � Dearborn Chief of Police Michael Celeski died of an apparent heart attack Monday, July 28. He was 49 years old and had spent his entire career with the Dearborn Police Department. A lifelong Dearborn resident, Celeski was appointed Chief of Police in 2005 by the late Mayor Michael A. Guido. As Dearborn's top law...
What you should know about the primaries
August 1st, 20080 In a community rich with immigrants and young people often unfamiliar or unsure about details of the primary election process, basic questions frequently come up. The Arab American News tries to answer some of the most common here, in preparation for Tuesday. What are the August 5 primaries for? Don't we vote on...
Local activists urge boycott of Israel
August 1st, 20080 ANN ARBOR � A small group of tenacious Ann Arbor activists have been staging weekly local demonstrations against what they call apartheid in Israel, imploring institutions like the People's Food Co-op to boycott the Jewish state. Two protestors even made appearances at recent Dearborn School Board meetings, in an effort to...
Tlaib running for State Rep seat
August 1st, 20080 When Rashida Tlaib took a job under Michigan Majority Floor Leader Steve Tobocman, she didn't do it with the intention of starting a political career. But after working under him as a senior policy advisor, Tlaib realized that running for office would be the best way for her to continue to help people in Southwest Detroit, where......
Government, corporate experience guide Webb
August 1st, 20080 One open seat on the Wayne County Commission is being fought for by a Garden City woman who has a history of relationships with the Arab American community. The fifteen-member commission serves primarily as an oversight body with control over the county budget and the authority to approve or reject contracts. The seat that...Our endorsements for the primary
Primary election day is Tuesday, August 5. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. It's summer and many people are away. But important local races are taking place. They will decide who is to be on the ballot in November when the general elections, including for president of the country, will happen. We urge everyone to......
U.S. foreign policy morass outlined
This is an updated version of Guyatt's original product, with a new post-9/11 final chapter. In a word, the book is brilliant. It is an in-depth analysis of U.S. foreign policy since 1945, addressing such matters as its love affair with exporting neo-conservative economics to Third World countries and the former Soviet...Protesters want Khadr brought home
Demonstrations took place recently in major cities across Canada to demand Omar Khadr's return. On July 25 and 26, there were gatherings in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, and on July 29 in Vancouver. Gina Hill, past president of Amnesty International Canada, addressed the Ottawa demonstration near the U.S. embassy and called...Israel attacks charities, orphanages
If you still think there are red lines that Israel has not crossed with regard to its treatment of Palestinians, don't be too sure. In recent days and weeks, the Israeli army has been vandalizing, ransacking and confiscating Palestinian civilian institutions in the West Bank's largest towns and cities, including Ramallah, the seat of...
In Israel, Obama looks to votes back home
August 1st, 20080 JERUSALEM (IPS) � Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. These are the images that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama......
Top ten intellectuals all Muslim
Two prestigious Western magazines � Foreign Policy in the United States and Prospect in Britain � asked their readers to choose which among the world's 100 public intellectuals deserved the top honours. Over 500,000 people cast their votes via the internet. The results published this July were surprising. The first ten names on the...Iran in spotlight at Christian Zionist confab
WASHINGTON (IPS) � The controversial Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee and thousands of supporters filled a convention center in downtown Washington this week for his Christians United for Israel (CUFI) organization's Washington-Israel Summit, where the "Iranian threat" was a recurrent theme. CUFI is a proponent of Christian......
Despair driving attacks in Jerusalem
In one of the most beautiful songs in the Bible, the poet vows: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, / Let my right hand forget her cunning. / If I do not remember thee, / Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; / If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy!" (Psalms 137:5) For some reason, the poet did not write: "If I forget...What does al-Maliki really want?
The July deadline for Iraq and the United States to sign a security agreement for the long-term status of U.S. troops in Iraq is stumbling to a close. Officials of both the Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's government are now admitting that meeting a deadline that would allow Iraq to restore full......